Charles C. Mann calls himself "a fella who tries to find out interesting things and tell others about them."

Why you should listen

Twenty years ago, on the day his daughter was born, Charles C. Mann suddenly realized that by the time she reaches his age, there will be almost ten billion people in the world. How is that going to work? How are we going to feed everybody, get water to everybody, get power to everybody and avoid the worst impacts of climate change? Is there any hope we can do all of this?

As a science journalist, Mann has been asking these questions to researchers for years. His TED2018 talk is his best effort to explain the kind of answers he gets, and what they mean -- all in 12 minutes.

 Mann is the author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created and his latest, The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World.

Charles C. Mann’s TED talk

More news and ideas from Charles C. Mann

Live from TED2018

What on earth do we do? Notes from Session 6 of TED2018

April 12, 2018

This beautiful blue marble, our shared earth: On a sunny morning in Vancouver, we pack into the darkened TED theater to learn more about its mysteries, its challenges, and how we might help it thrive. There’s no shiny “nature porn” here (well, maybe a little bit) but a clear-eyed look at what’s going right and […]

Continue reading